File photo of Tori Stafford. The head forensic investigator in the Victoria (Tori) Stafford case will return to the stand at the trial of a man charged in the 2009 death of the eight-year-old Ontario girl.

Tori Stafford in her last school photo before her disappearance on April 8, 2009.

LONDON, Ont. — Around the time Victoria (Tori) Stafford disappeared, the man accused in her death was "constantly checking" up on the police investigation and expressed concern for an ex-girlfriend who had been arrested, his first-degree murder trial was told Thursday.

Child youth worker Sarah Hodge, 31, testified that in mid-April 2009, Michael Rafferty was interested in every news item about the missing child on television or in the newspapers.

The accused, also 31, told her he knew all the intricacies of the case and that the young girl's abduction was related to drugs, Hodge testified.

"He told me he knew all the inside information," said Hodge.

The pair dated for two weeks during this time after meeting online.

Rafferty is on trial for abduction, sexual assault causing bodily harm and first-degree murder in Stafford's death. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The Grade 3 student was last seen April 8, 2009, outside her elementary school in Woodstock, Ont., a small city about 120 kilometres west of Toronto.

On July 19, 2009, her remains were found buried under a rock pile near Mount Forest, Ont.

An autopsy determined Stafford died from blunt force trauma to the head, most likely caused by multiple blows from a hammer.

In 2010, one of Rafferty's former lovers, Terri-Lynne McClintic, pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

During the time Hodge was with Rafferty, she recalled him starting a conversation with her once about kidnapping children.

"We did one time talk about abducting kids," said Hodge. "Just . . . how people take kids and abduct them and they just grow up thinking those are their real parents."

Hodge said she often saw Rafferty use "oxys," or OxyContin. She said he told her he had them because he had colon cancer and would carry the addictive painkillers wrapped up in a piece of foil in his pocket or in an unlabelled pill bottle.

Several times, she said, Rafferty confided in her about McClintic — who at that time was being held at a youth detention centre on an unrelated matter and was being questioned about Stafford's disappearance.

"He was looking out for her while her mother couldn't," Hodge said Rafferty told her.

Once, she said, she heard Rafferty and McClintic talking on the phone, Rafferty promising to "be there" for McClintic and bring her some clothes for an upcoming court hearing.

Since the trial began on March 5, the Crown has maintained that Rafferty was the mastermind behind the murder, while the defence alleges that he was only a "horrified" spectator who was duped by McClintic, 21.

Hodge told the court that when the two went on dates, he would insist on driving in her car.

He had a beat-up badly painted 2003 Honda Civic and they drove in it a few times. She said she noticed right away that the back rear seat had been removed. At the time, she said, Rafferty told her that he needed it gone because he was installing new ones.

As the trial progressed Thursday, the court got a better glimpse into Rafferty's busy dating life and his mysterious home life around the time of Stafford's disappearance.

A 40-year-old woman who also met Rafferty online and dated him for several weeks until his arrest on May 19, 2009, testified he had been "very upset" when police initially questioned him in the investigation.

She said Rafferty told her it was due to his "association" with McClintic.

"He seemed very upset for this young woman . . . that she was making good strides in her life," said the woman, whose name has been placed under a publication ban.

"I heard the (court) hearing had not gone well for her and she was still in detention. He seemed frustrated by that and kind of sad."

She also noticed that the back seat of Rafferty's car was missing when they began dating on April 12, 2009 — four days after Stafford went missing.

Throughout the day, wearing a dark suit and a blue striped tie, Rafferty would closely watch several other women from his past enter the courtroom and walk toward the witness stand. At times, he would grin and try to lock eyes with them when they finished their testimony.

Melanie LaBute, a woman who also went on three dates with Rafferty around this time, told the court his car was littered with empty coffee cups and other garbage when she rode in it. She did not notice the back seat missing.

After their first date, she stopped calling him because she was no longer interested.

"He did end up calling . . . he had just asked, 'Why haven't you called me? Is there something wrong? Why didn't you call me?' " said LaBute.

"He just seemed very needy to me."

Several neighbours who lived on the same street as Rafferty also testified Thursday.

David Pushie and his stepdaughter Alexis Morley saw the back seat of a car placed out in front of Rafferty's home for spring cleaning pick up around Easter 2009, which fell on April 12 that year.

Mike Griswold saw a similar looking car seat around the same time.

"Well I went to look in the pile to see what's out there, just to be a nosy neighbour," he said. "What I saw, there was a loveseat sitting on top of a car seat, when I went looking through the pile. The car seat had a rip in there."

Later, he corrected himself and said he first noticed Rafferty had taken the seat and put it in a shed sometime in late March 2009 so he could install some speakers.

Earlier in the day, jurors heard again from lead forensic investigator Jennifer McLean.

She told the court that although DNA likely belonging to the young girl was found in Rafferty's car and gym bag, science cannot tell how it got there.

During cross-examination, McLean said that even after testing what was believed to be Stafford's DNA to a near certainty on these items, and in one instance, mixed with what was believed to be Rafferty's DNA, there is doubt on when the transmission had taken place.

"You can't even tell us whether or not they were in the same car at the same time?" asked defence lawyer Dirk Derstine.

"Based on the results that I have . . . if I find DNA from two individuals on one item, it does not necessarily mean it was deposited at the same time," said McLean.

She told the court the evidence cannot indicate whether Rafferty sexually assaulted the little girl in the car, as McClintic had alleged.

Scientists also were able to identify two blond hairs found on a black peacoat from the accused's home as female.

One of the hairs was excluded as being Stafford's or McClintic's while the other had too little information to recover any DNA, said McLean.

As the Crown's star witness, McClintic testified that the couple had covered Stafford with a black jacket during the alleged abduction and she had cut out pieces of car seat with a utility knife following the murder.

When police seized Rafferty's car, the rear bench seat was missing. It has not been recovered.

McClintic said Stafford was raped repeatedly once they got to Mount Forest.

This sent her into a rage over her own childhood abuse, and she used a hammer to strike Stafford multiple times, she testified.

Until this trial, she had always maintained Rafferty had been the one who delivered the fatal blows.

The trial continues Friday with more evidence about comments Rafferty made following Stafford’s disappearance.

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